


Silent Nights in Dorado

by AnnaStachia



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Siblings, all i want for them is to be a big happy family, all of this in moderation, non romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 21:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8939377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaStachia/pseuds/AnnaStachia
Summary: Sombra finds Jesse passed out in a bar on Christmas and can't ignore her own curiosity.





	

She spots him as soon as she walks into the bar, sitting in the corner nursing a glass of whiskey. Jesse doesn’t look up when the door shuts behind her, despite how empty the place is, and she’s glad. What he’s doing in Dorado on Christmas of all days is anyone’s guess, though Sombra will readily admit that she is immensely curious.

Quietly she makes her way to the other side of the bar, keeping Jesse in her peripheral. He takes a long, slow sip of his drink and lets his head nearly collapse onto the bar. Sombra orders her usual, even if it’s been nearly a year since she’s been here. Some things don’t change.

“Hey barkeep,” the cowboy’s speech is slurred. “I’ll take another bottle.”

Miguel, the barkeep, and one of Sombra’s old Los Meurtos buddies, eyes him critically. “Think maybe you oughtta head home, _amigo_.”

“You think if I had a home to head to, I’d be here?”

Miguel’s eyebrows shoot up and Sombra mirrors the expression over her glass as she takes a drink. Last she checked the Overwatch recall was still active, and a few had even headed it’s call. Though if her information is correct, and it absolutely is, Jesse McCree had never been a part of Overwatch proper. So maybe he didn’t feel welcome in the recall. 

His father had been jailed when he was just a tot, and died in the clink. His mother had never much cared for him leaving him to join the Deadlock gang at a young age where he took on the name Jesse. A familiar story to Sombra, far too close to her own. He had left the gang behind when he joined Blackwatch, helping put the last of them behind bars, unlike Sombra. And picked up by none other than Gabriel Reyes, presumed dead by most. Which would leave him no family to speak of.

So how did he end up in Dorado and not one of a dozen other places that he could call home. 

“I’ll give you the rest of this bottle,” Miguel tells him, sliding a third of a bottle down the bar toward him. “ _Feliz navidad_ ” He shook his head at Sombra, as Jesse poured himself another glass. It’s awfully nice of him to have taken pity on a stranger, and maybe all of them had done some growing over the years. 

“So what you brings you back here?” He asks her, moving back down the bar, to clean a glass. 

“Oh you know me, home sweet home.”

“Sure, if you say so.” 

He knows it’s a brush off answer, but it’s not a total lie. Like Jesse, like Miguel, like Reaper and Widowmaker, Sombra had nowhere to be this holiday season. She had considered dropping in on her new friend in Russia for family festivities, but thought that might be pushing her luck. She thought about paying her friends at Vishkar a visit, but then she couldn’t decide who which one, and they aren’t much for holiday celebrations there at the house of order. So she came home because at the end of the day the streets of Dorado were always home. 

“So what’s with the American?” she asks allowing her curiosity to get the better of her.

Miguel shrugs, “Showed up a few hours ago. Keeps to himself mostly. Did go on a bit just before you came in about misplaced family and why the holidays have always been against him.”

“Huh.” Sombra glances his way again. “ _Porbecito_ ”

She thinks about the way Reaper took off without word three days ago. She could track him down with very little effort if she felt so inclined. He’s in the states is all that she knows for sure. Reaper never talks about his Blackwatch days. Not in any reminiscent sort of way. Anytime he brings up Overwatch it’s about how he’s going to put an end to their miserable existence. These days when he’s not busy on actual Talon business he’s chasing the elusive Soldier 76 across the globe. Sombra has to admit, she’d love to get in on that, after all he had a hand in disbanding Los Meurtos.

He doesn’t talk about his past, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t know everything about him. A large part of that past includes the drunk in the corner and she imagines a lot of that past contributes to his being drunk in the corner. 

Their stories aren’t so different, only his ends in tragedy where her’s ends in success. A life of neglect, to a life of chaotic crime, and eventually picked up by a bigger organization due to their incredible talents. Jesse recruited into Blackwatch by Gabriel Reyes, and Sombra recruited into Talon by the mysterious entity known as the Reaper. Both plucked from a hopeless situation by the same person. Only Jesse lost his mentor and Sombra knows she’ll be rolling her eyes at that ridículo skull mask within a week.

Jesse knocks back the rest of his drink, and sets his glass down. He reaches for the bottle of whiskey, misses, and doesn’t bother trying again. He just puts his head down on his metal arm and stays there. 

“Well that was anticlimactic” Sombra mutters into her glass. 

“About time if you ask me.” Miguel says. “Only now this fool is passed out on my bar.”

Finishing her drink, she slides off the stool. “Don’t worry about it Miguel, I got this one.”

The bartender eyes her suspiciously. He’s been acquainted with her throughout most of her formative years, and he knows she rarely does anything unless there’s some sort of personal gain. He’s beginning to think that there’s more to this cowboy than Sombra let on. 

Her fingers itch as she approaches Jesse. He’s out like a light, and it would be so easy to hack her way into his life right here while he’s defenseless. Find every weakness to exploit later on down the line when they inevitably come against each other. He lets out a loud snore and she drops her hand only to slide it around his shoulders to lift him.

“Alright _vaquero_ , come with me.”

Thankfully he stirs, and lets her pull him up.

“Whoa there.” His accent is thicker with alcohol. “Where you think you’re taking me?” 

He tries to straighten up and push her away, but ends up steadying himself on the bar, somehow managing to tangle his legs together. 

Sombra swears under her breath. “I’m getting you out of here so Miguel can close up. It’s Christmas, let the man go home to his family.” She hears Miguel chuckle darkly. His wife left him some time ago with their son in tow. 

“Oh, pardon me, Sir. Merry Christmas. Feliz Navidad ‘n all that.”

“Okay, McCree, let’s go.” She puts an arm around him again as she leads him out.

They’re outside by the time his brain catches up. “Hold up.” He stops, while she keeps going, causing him to trip over own feet. She manages to catch him, thinking this might be more trouble than it’s worth. “How’d ya know my name?”

“Let’s just say I know a lot, yeah?” She pauses, a smirk forming across her face. She can’t help it, so for extra measure she adds, “Joel.”

It’s worth it for the way his eyes go wide and then narrow with dangerous precision despite how drunk he is. “What did you just say?”

“Me? Nothing, _amigo_. I have a safe house you can crash in.” She rolls her eyes around, “Unless you want to sleep in the alley. Then by all means don’t let me stop you.”

“You know, I don’t even know your name, and you’re already inviting me back to your place. Shouldn’t I buy you dinner first.”

“I imagine you fancy yourself a gentleman, but I’ll pass. The name’s Sombra.” She starts walking again, slowly, and he follows. 

“Sombra. Like a shadow.”

“Exactly like a shadow.” 

“So why you helping a guy like me out, Shadow?”

Her mouth twists at the English translation of her name. “It’s Sombra. Let’s just say, you remind me of me, and I’m feeling the holiday spirit. I know what it’s like to have nowhere to go.”

“Well, ain’t that just a bitch.”

They walk in silence for a while. His gait gets steadier as they go, and he leans on her a little less. The fresh air is letting him think a little bit more clearly, and now he has something to focus on other than his own sad, miserable existence. 

“So who exactly are you?” he asks as they turn down the street the little one room she used to squat in in her gang days is on. She pays for it now, having exposed the former landlord as running a racketeering scam in the wake of Los Meurtos’ fall, and instating a former member in his wake. She gets a discounted rate. 

“I told you.”

“Naw. You told me your name. You haven’t told me who you are.”

Sombra chuckles. He’s too drunk you try and play word games with her. “That’s not what you really want to know, is it? You want to know how it is I know you.”

“Well, you ain’t wrong.”

“I told you,” she repeats, “I know a lot. It’s my job to know things.”

“That a skill too, dodging questions?”

“Happens to be something I’m naturally good at.” They reach the small hovel, and she unlocks the door with a quick flash of her fingers. Everything inside is electronic, including the door lock. Why mess with keys you can potentially lose, when you can just hack your way in. 

“Well this ain’t fair.”

She laughs again, turning on the lights with another twitch of her fingers over holo-keys. “What’s the point in playing fair, _amigo_? You know as well as me that life is a far cry from fair. You take what you can get, and you take what you want.”

“Dangerous way of thinking.”

“I’m a dangerous person. Some call it survival.”

“Can’t deny that.” He shrugs, resting his hand against the wall as she moves away from him. “So if you’re so dangerous, why’re you helping me?”

“I told you. I seem to have to repeat myself a lot.”

Jesse frowns. “Yeah well…. I’m drunk.”

“I can tell. Look McCree, you and I, we’re not all that different. We came from the same path and took different branches in the fork if you want to get metaphorical. Hell, we’re practically siblings, _hermano_. It’s not every day I’m feeling this generous, so, take what you can get.”

He looks at her for a long moment and she thinks he’s going to press it. If he does she’s going to have to lose her patience a little. This is more than she would do for most acquaintances. While she might know more about him than some of his closest friends, they’re technically strangers. 

“Alright, but you can bet you’ll be getting the third degree in the morning missy. I aint about to let this slide so easily.”

She looks up at the ceiling with a roll of her eyes. She won’t even be here in the morning, and he’ll have to put in some real effort if he actually wants to track her down. She’ll be in Nepal the day after tomorrow on her next job.

“Sure whatever. Just go back to being passed out already, yeah.”

“Hey, _hermana_ , whatever your reasons, I appreciate you looking out for me. Warms my bitter heart three sizes, you know.”

She’s beginning to regret this decision. “Well, just remember that someday in the future, you owe me one. In the spirit of Christmas, let me leave you with a parting gift. When you wake up and get on with your life, maybe look into this Reaper guy. Works for Talon. Real piece of work. Also maybe don’t ignore that Overwatch Recall. I don’t know if you watch the news at all, but the world could use a few heroes. Someone’s gotta fight the bad guys after all.” She tries to fight the smirk and fails.

Maybe she shouldn’t have turned him onto Reaper, but things were sure going to get interesting if he took her advice. It’s not like he can run from his past while chasing after it at the same time. One way or another he and Jesse will cross paths eventually, so why shouldn’t she just help them along. Having Jesse as one of her many friends, or even a brother had to have it’s benefits, especially if he runs back to Overwatch. 

“You sure do know a lot.” he says, with those narrowed eyes. 

She takes bow still smirking then turns for the front door. “Oh.” she calls over her shoulder. “Don’t forget to visit the bakery before you leave. Alejandra makes fantastic scones.”

**Author's Note:**

> The holiday comic is everything and I love that Sombra's just hanging out in the bar while Jesse is passed the heck out.


End file.
